Trouble comes in threes

by Heidi on November 24th, 2009

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Well I am hoping that the old saying trouble comes in threes is true as I am not sure what else I can deal with this week. On top of the troubles, last night we sold Little Dude which was really hard and I am kind of dreading Thursday already.

Truly today I would much rather be participating in my normal Tuesday cooking carnivals but our troubles started on Saturday morning, when we found our oven putting on a fireworks display! What was quite alarming were the sparks that were actually escaping out the bottom of the door! We turned the oven off but it made no difference, Steve went down and turned off the power at the mains and fortunately that put an end to the light show. Once things had cooled off we checked and discovered the element had snapped!

The oven has been having problems with temperature for a while, getting much hotter than asked, and we aren’t sure if it is a faulty thermostat made the element burn out or if a faulty element was causing the temperature issues. We knew it was something we were going to have to think about at some point, although not so soon, as our hob is also on its last legs with only 2 of 4 burners working. But we had a long list of chores for the day, so we tried to put the oven out of mind and went to get on. Fortunately we may already have a solution care of some very good friends.

Sunday was another busy, busy day and as we thought we were getting to the end of it trouble number 2 hit us. We went to make a quick trip down to the local grocery store to collect scraps for Beans and discovered we had a flat tire! Steve had filled it the other day so he figured it was a slow puncture, then the kicker, while he was looking at that tire I pointed out that the front one was even flatter! We were on limited time as we needed to get to the store before it closed or Beans would be going hungry, and if you don’t get there before a certain time they throw the stuff in the garbage.

We called them to let them know we were still coming, just delayed, and set about changing to winter tires as quickly as we could. I suppose I should just be grateful that over here we have to have a whole separate set of tires for the winter! Steve had a quick look at the tires and found a great big nail in the one he knew had a problem, but couldn’t find anything obviously causing the problem with the other one that was flat as a pancake. Oh well we have the winter to figure that out. We made it to the store and were well rewarded with a big box of greens.

Finally, and saving the worst till last, yesterday evening as I was going out to round up Little Dude (the goose) and a couple of ducks that we had sold and were delivering that evening, I found the bylaw officer that visited last Monday. Back to charge us and give us a fine of $610! Stunned!

Last week Steve spoke to bylaw a few times to keep them posted on how we were trying to resolve the situation. That I had posted our ducks for sale on Kijiji and UsedOttawa, that we had made the earliest appointment we could at the only licensed processor in the area for the majority of the boys for Thursday. That he had a plan for the fencing to keep them contained but that with working full time there is a lack of daylight hours to get it done in. They said this was fine, we had a couple of weeks and when we were ready to let them know and they would come out and review what we had done.

You can imagine how shocked I was to be seeing the officer again giving us a fine. But apparently the ‘complainant’ has made out witness statements and declared a wish to go to court so here we are. He also told me that there had been many complaints going back and that now the sheep were included. I pointed out that we had no prior knowledge of complaints and he did say that he had complained to his manager that they were not aware of any previous complaints when they came out last, and he doesn’t know why the other officers who received complaints wouldn’t have come out to us.

I don’t understand how things got to this point, we didn’t know there was a problem till last Monday and we have spent the week since doing everything we can to resolve it as quickly as possible. Including selling Little Dude, which trust me wasn’t an easy decision for either of us, working on the fencing, and spreading a lot of scratch on the front lawn to keep the ducks entertained. But apparently that doesn’t matter.

We are both trying really hard to figure out how we stay true to ourselves and not lower ourselves to their level, but last year they came out, without speaking to us, chopped branches off our trees and dumped them on top of our fences, shorted us on our half of the hay from our fields, and now seem to be trying to make as much trouble for us as possible.

Sorry this was so long, and so much less tasty than is normal for a Tuesday! But I really needed to share/vent.

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on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 10:09 am and is filed under Everyday Life, Homesteading.
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What a shame. I think you certainly have grounds to fight seeing as you were never informed of previous complaints — how could you possibly rectify a situation you didn’t know existed? Is it pay the fine or go to court to fight that $610, or is there a chance the fine could go up if you lose in court? Good luck. Crabby neighbours are a menace.

I think it’s really terrible that your neighbors wouldn’t speak to you themselves first to try and rectify the situation. I would definitely try to fight the ticket – they said it was fine to give you a few weeks to correct the issue and then turn around and give you a ticket? bad show.